Music, Sound, and Technology in America: A Documentary History of Early Phonograph, Cinema, and Radio

428 Pages·2012·2.585 MB·English

by  Timothy D. Taylor, Mark Katz, Tony Grajeda

Music, sound,
and Technology
in AMericA

Music, sound,
and Technology
in AMericA
a documentary history of
early Phonograph, cinema,
and Radio
Edited by Timothy D. Taylor,
Mark Katz, and Tony Grajeda
Duke University Press
Durham and London
2012
© 2012 Duke University Press
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ♾
Typeset in Minion by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data and
republication acknowledgments appear on the last printed
page of this book.
Like water, like gas, like the electrical current coming
from afar into our homes responding to our needs in
return for almost no effort, so we will be supplied with
visual or audible images, appearing and disappearing
with the least gesture, almost a sign, only to leave us
again the same way as they came.
—Paul Valéry, “La Conquête de l’ubiquité,”
in Pièces sur l’art, 1928–1934

contents
General Introduction: Music Technologies
in Everyday Life • Timothy D. Taylor 1
Part i. sound recording
Introduction • Mark Katz 11
Sound Recording: Readings 29
Predictions
1. Thomas A. Edison, “The Phonograph and Its Future” (1878) 29
2. “The Phonograph,” New York Times (7 November 1877) 37
3. Philip G. Hubert Jr., “What the Phonograph Will Do for Music and
Music- Lovers” (May 1893) 39
The Listener and the Phonograph
Learning to Listen
4. Edison Realism Test, Broadside (c. 1916) 44
5. “Illustrated Song Machine,” Talking Machine World (October 1905);
“Illustrated Song Machine,” Talking Machine World (November 1905) 45
6. Orlo Williams, “Times and Seasons,” Gramophone (June 1923) 45
The Phonograph in Everyday Life
7. How We Gave a Phonograph Party (1899) 48
8. Jas. O’Dea, Arthur Gillespie, and Herbert Dillea, “Susan, Dear Sue
(The Phonograph Song)” (1901) 52
9. Pauline Partridge, “The Home Set to Music” (November 1924) 53
10. Thomas A. Edison, Inc., questionnaire and responses (1921) 56
The Phonograph and Music Appreciation
11. Annie Pike Greenwood, “The Victor in the Rural School”
(26 February 1914) 65
12. “Organize a Music Memory Contest,” Talking Machine Journal
(March 1919) 67
Men, Women, and Phonographs
13. Victrola advertisement, Collier’s (4 October 1913) 70
14. Aeolian-V ocalion advertisement, Vanity Fair (May 1916) 70
15. Gladys L. Kimmel, “Having Different Types of Women Customers”
(June 1920) 71
16. Scrutator, “Where Are the Ladies?” (June 1925) 75
17. T.A.F., “Ladies and Gramophone” (August 1925) 75
18. Gladys M. Collin, “Women and the Gramophone” (October 1925) 76
19. Dorothy B. Fisher, “Women and the Phonograph” (October 1926) 77
Music and the Great War
20. “Talking Machines Are ‘Essentials’” (December 1917) 78
21. Vivian Burnett, “When I Hear That Phonograph Play” (1918) 80
22. “Phonographs on the Firing Line” (19 October 1919) 81
Performers and the Phonograph
In the Recording Studio
23. “How Talking Machine Orchestras Operate” (September 1910) 84
24. Yvonne de Treville, “Making a Phonograph Record” (November 1916) 85
25. Baby Dodds, The Baby Dodds Story (1992) 88
26. Edwin McArthur, “Conducting for Record” (March 1941) 92
The Phonograph and Music Pedagogy
27. “The Effect of Mechanical Instruments upon Musical Education”
(July 1916) 94
28. Oscar Saenger, The Oscar Saenger Course in Vocal Training (1916) 103
The Phonograph and the Composer
The Composer in the Machine Age
29. Henry Cowell, “Music of and for the Records” (March–April 1931) 104
30. Igor Stravinsky, An Autobiography (1936) 107
The Phonograph as a Compositional Tool
31. Carol- Bérard, “Recorded Noises—Tomorrow’s Instrumentation”
(January–February 1929) 110
32. Igor Stravinsky, “Meine Stellung zur Schallplatte” (March 1930) 113
Phonograph Debates
Con
33. John Philip Sousa, “The Menace of Mechanical Music” (1906) 113
34. Portland (Oregon) City Council, “An Ordinance Regulating the Use of
Phonographs” (14 August 1907); Minutes of the Portland City Council
(27 November 1907) 122
35. Joseph N. Weber, “Canned Music—Is It Taking the Romance from Our
Lives?” (November 1930) 123
Pro
36. Paul H. Cromelin, “‘The Menace of Mechanical Music’” (1906) 126
37. Anne Shaw Faulkner, “Phonographs and Player Instruments” (August
1917) 129
Part ii. cinema
Introduction • Tony Grajeda 137
Cinema: Readings 145
Technologies of Sight and Sound
38. “The Kineto- Phonograph” (16 June 1894) 145
39. “The Perfection of the Phono- Cinematograph” (14 September 1907) 148
40. Advertisement for Picturephone, “Singing and Talking Moving Pictures”
(11 January 1908) 149
41. “The Singing and Talking Picture—What Is Its Future?” (7 May 1910) 149
42. “Talking ‘Movies’” (8 March 1913) 152
Sounds of the Cinema:
Illustrated Song Slides; The Role of the Voice
(lecturers, actors); Incidental Musics, Special
Effects, Ballyhoo, and Noise of the Audience
43. Chas. K. Harris, “Illustrating Song Slides” (9 March 1907) 153
44. Chas. K. Harris, “Song Slide Review” (16 March 1907) 156
45. H. F. Hoffman, “The Singer and the Song” (4 June 1910) 158
46. Van C. Lee, “The Value of a Lecture” (8 February 1908) 161